After two years and five months, Restaurant Yamaguchi has finally
reopened in Port Washington. Owners Akira and Yasuko Yamaguchi opened for business
on Saturday, Aug. 15, with the grand reopening on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
The Yamaguchis are joyful that they are finally reopened on Main Street. “Port Washington is a beautiful
town with friendly people,” said Yasuko. “We like it here so much.
It’s a great community.”
The opening was a success. “We had a wonderful first weekend
open. We were fully booked with reservations for Tuesday also. We are very busy and are having a great start. Many of our old regular customers have already come
in and are very happy to be back.”
Prior to opening, Yamaguchi had many callers who began making reservations early last week. “We have many loyal customers,” said Yasuko. “They stopped in before the opening when they saw us working here asking when Yamaguchi will be opened again.”
Restaurant Yamaguchi’s new home is at 49 Main St. The new restaurant is on the far corner of the same block as the original. The corner building has a wall of windows, adding a new dynamic to the decor of the restaurant. According to Yasuko, the counters and shelves are hand crafted using bamboo plywood, giving it a touch of the Orient while also being eco-friendly, as bamboo grows much more quickly than trees. The new Yamaguchi seats 72 and has a bar and a sushi bar. The menus are largely the same as the previous ones, with a few changes. The staff includes three chefs plus Akira Yamaguchi, a staff of eight waiters and two dishwashers. “We’ve had the same chefs for many years,” said Yasuko.
Yasuko said that she saved all of the photographs that were on the walls from the ruins of the old restaurant. “I had them all reframed,” she said. “They survived the fire.” The old Restaurant Yamaguchi was destroyed in a fire on March 14, 2013. That building, at 63 Main St., is still under construction. Yasuko said, “We wanted to stay on Main Street, so we waited to find the right location.”
Restaurant Yamaguchi was at 63 Main St. for 26 years, since it opened in 1989. Yasuko said, “We moved
to Port Washington 28 years ago
and opened the restaurant two
years later.”
Akira and his brother also owned a restaurant in Manhattan before opening Yamaguchi in Port Washington. Yasuko met her husband at his restaurant where
she worked as a maître d’. Yasuko came to New York from Yokomo, Japan, in 1968.
Dinner at Yamaguchi is served from 5 until 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 5 to 10 p.m. on Tuesday through Thursday and Sundays. Yamaguchi is open every day for lunch from 12 to 2:30 p.m., except Monday. Call 516-883-3500
for reservations.
